Kevin Whitcher
Fair play to those that made it to last night’s Carabao / League Cup tie against Brentford. With no Piccadilly line service and all kinds of closures before and after the game on the two Victoria Line stations that service the stadium, it was no wonder that many were not in their seats when Danny Welbeck opened the scoring after five minutes with a nicely taken header from Guendouzi’s cross.
There were ‘game sold out’ signs on the box office windows, but it turned out that simply meant no last minute ticket sales to walk ups. Vast swathes of the upper tiers were largely unpopulated. There was a time when the cheapness of the tickets for this game meant a packed stadium, but those days are long gone now. Brentford brought a healthy 9,000 along.
Arsenal’s starting eleven featured two of the defenders that had started against Everton on Sunday, plus Rob Holding who came on for the injured Sokratis during that game. This points to a mixture of injuries and lack of depth, although it was good to see Sead Kolasinac amongst the substitutes.
Brentford offered minimal threat in the first half, Arsenal keeper Bernd Leno coming closes to scoring for them when he mis-controlled a backpass and was fortunate to see it roll wide of his goal. I don't think we’d have ever stopped seeing replays of that howler had it gone in. So much for Manuel Neuer Mk II then!
Although rarely genuinely cohesive, Arsenal made things more comfortable when Welbeck doubled his tally after 37 minutes getting on the end of a ball in from Monreal. It felt a bit processional at this point.
Fair play to Brentford though. They made a fist of it by getting one back just before the hour, with a nicely taken free-kick although there was a thought that Leno might have done better. The threat of an equaliser necessitated the introduction of Lacazette in place of Emile Smith-Rowe. The latter was the only youngster to see any action last night, and did not look as impressive as one might have hoped given the level of opposition. Welbeck and Guendouzi were probably the homes side’s stand-out players.
The visitors had a very decent chance to equalise just after they had scored, but fortunately fired over. Arsenal weathered the short term storm, eventually bringing on Torreira and Ramsey. They enjoyed the better of the chances as the game wore down and made certain of progress to the last 16 when Lacazette finished nicely in injury time. By then, supporters had been told they could only use Highbury & Islington and Angel tube stations to get home. It was just as well it wasn’t a full house as God alone knows how long the queue to get in at Highbury and Islington station must have been.
So a comfortable enough victory in the end, and run-outs for the likes of Elneny, Lichtsteiner, Welbeck and Iwobi (although the latter did not have a very good evening). Overall, no-one really made you step up and think – they should be starting, but doubtless, injuries and suspensions will mean some are called upon in the Premier League as the games rack up.
Overall, a case of job done, move onto the next one, although very pleasing for the club’s winning run to continue.
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